Blog: Meet a Researcher

Aaron Beattie completed his undergraduate science degree at the University of Waterloo, his master’s in plant breeding at the University of Guelph and his PhD in plant pathology at the University of Saskatchewan. He grew up in Saskatchewan and currently lives in Saskatoon.

Where did you work before the Crop Development Centre (CDC)?

I worked at Southern Seed Technology, a winter nursery in New Zealand for about a year. This is the nursery we collaborate with and send our barley to in the winter. Prior to that, I was working in the dry bean breeding program at the University of Guelph.

What got you interested in this area of work?

My background from my undergrad was biology and genetics. When I finished my undergrad, I knew I liked genetics, but I wanted to do something that wasn’t pure research. That’s where plant breeding made sense because it leans heavily on genetics and various aspects of biology, but it has that applied piece as well. That helped me make my decision to go to the University of Guelph. My thesis was focused on plant breeding and I continued in that area afterwards in my work. I came back to Saskatchewan for school, and eventually landed my current job.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at the CDC.

The summer is busy between running tours for the barley and oat programs for farmers and funders, doing selections in the field and keeping my crew organized leading into harvest. Teaching is a big part of my winter, as well as evaluating data we collect from the fields in the summer and organizing our winter work, such as the quality and molecular data. I’ve got four graduate students working at the moment, and we have a lot of industry interactions.

In terms of research, one project we are working on, Phenotyping and Genomic selection for improved barley Deoxynivalenol (DON) resistance, is funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance, SaskBarley, Alberta Grains and Western Grains Research Foundation. This project deals with trying to get a better handle on fusarium resistance in barley, which the barley research community has made a lot of good progress towards over the past 20 years.

This project aims to develop genomic tools to help me select for better resistance. We’re working closely with James Tucker at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Brandon. We send him a few thousand lines every year and he evaluates them for DON and fusarium resistance. We are also genotyping these lines to create prediction models for fusarium resistance.

Eventually, we hope to develop a way to select for better DON resistance using genomic tools early on in our breeding program, and evaluate only those lines that we think have better resistance in the nursery as a means to confirm the better resistance.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

The work we do as breeders spans fairly large periods of time. You’ve likely heard that it is an eight-to-10-year process to go from a cross to moving forward a variety. Funding from farmers is key to our program, as well as to other barley breeding programs in Western Canada because it allows us to make long-term plans. It allows us to test more, which means we have a higher probability of producing something better in the future.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

It allows farmers to have a voice in terms of what we do, which is critical. Hearing new ideas from farmers based on things they are seeing in the field is invaluable. We try to listen to the whole value chain, and farmers are at the start of that chain. They need to be engaged in the process because we want them to see value in our work and keep barley in their rotation.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I coach and play hockey.

What is the best part about your job?

I like the idea that what I do is practical to people. The idea that you can take research and translate it into something that has value to other people is rewarding. Also, it’s a very nice community to work in. There are a lot of very engaged and enthusiastic people in agriculture and a lot of innovation. People are willing to incorporate new ideas – I really like that about the industry.

What gets you most excited about your work?

Interacting with people across quite a wide range of disciplines; researchers all the way to the end users and farmers. Having that diversity of viewpoints is quite interesting, and then trying to figure out how to make it all come together into a variety. It’s fun to go through that process and interact along the way with people influencing your end goals.

Follow @CDC_USask on Twitter.

Dilantha Fernando is a professor in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba (UM) and dean of studies at UM’s St. Paul’s College. Dilantha was born in Sri Lanka where he completed a bachelor of science in botany with a chemistry minor, as well as a master’s in microbiology. He then moved to the U.S. and completed his PhD in plant pathology at Oregon State University.

Fernando has been recognized with several prestigious awards for his work in research and teaching. He is an editor of six journals, including two where he is editor in chief. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife, who is also a researcher, and the two youngest of their three sons.

Where did you work before UM?

I have been very fortunate to have had work opportunities in many places. After completing my PhD, I held a postdoctoral position at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, where I worked on rice diseases. Next, I was presented the opportunity to come to McGill University as a postdoctoral fellow, which brought me back to North America.

After McGill, I held postdoctoral positions with the University of Arizona, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Ottawa Research and Development Centre (where I first worked on fusarium head blight) and Michigan State University. I then accepted a full-time position with UM.

What got you interested in this area of work?

While doing a degree in botany, one must have that moment of realization: “This is what I want to do.” I was not going to be a top scientist looking at plants, I was more fascinated by what I could not see – the bacteria, the viruses, the fungi. My microbiology research was entirely on bacterial microbiology. I became fascinated with how a single cell of a bacterium can do so much – good or bad. That’s where it all started, with my background and fascination with microbiology.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at UM.

I begin my days very early. I generally wake up around 5 a.m. to do any editing work and catch up on emails with a nice cup of Sri Lankan tea, before sending the kids off to school. In my office which is beside both of my labs, I spend time with my graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, working on research papers, developing new ideas and writing proposals and reports, before heading to St. Paul’s for the afternoon to do administrative work.

I teach two courses: plant disease management in the fall and the epidemiology of plant diseases in the winter. I also work with graduate and post-graduate students in the lab. This is one of the best parts of my job, mentoring students through research.

In research, I focus mostly on canola and cereal diseases. I have been working on Fusarium in wheat and barley, and training post docs in this area. The population structure of Fusarium pathogens of small grain cereals, their distribution and relationship to mycotoxins research is funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance, Western Grains Research Foundation, Alberta Wheat Commission, Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute, SaskBarley and Sask Wheat.

In this research we are looking at the western Canadian cline, or the way the pathogens are moving, and how that is impacting farmers. Our studies are also looking at how different chemotypes can impact the cereals.

Building on this opportunity, we have received thousands of isolates from different sources, including scientists in the east and in Ontario, enabling us to do several studies and make comparisons, which is very important. With these isolates, we are starting to see differences and to understand why a certain area might be getting less or more disease pressure. One of the key questions we are interested in is to understand why the 3A-DON chemotype is displacing the 15A-DON chemotype.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

The funding farmers give to support any research is so important. If you have good ideas and you want to help the world, to execute those ideas you need funding. It enables us to train highly qualified personnel and to answer farmers’ key questions that can only be answered through doing the research.

In our lab, we as researchers have a moral obligation to provide applicable results back to farmers.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

The direct benefit a farmer would see in the type of research I do on Fusarium is increased yields and decreased loss of quality. Because of that, farmers will gain a lot of opportunity at the trade level.

Safeguarding their fields is another direct benefit, because if they know how to reduce the inoculum of any fungus, any pathogen, they are going to have a better opportunity the next season with less inoculum of the pathogen in their fields.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I have a very busy lifestyle. My biggest hobby seems to be family and keeping in touch with friends, which has been a pleasure, especially when I am travelling. When I travel overseas, I always have somebody to meet up with, and some of those friendships have continued for more than 40 years.

What are you excited about for the future of agriculture?

This is a discussion we have at home because we feel very proud to work in agriculture. There are industries that come and go or change, but everyone in the world has to eat. Our land is not going to grow, but the population is.

So, we have to find new techniques to improve production, with less diseases, higher yields and high quality. I think agriculture is going to be one of the most desired industries also from a work standpoint where there will be more opportunities for people trained in agriculture to find jobs.

Who or what inspires you?

I give the highest credit to my parents. Both my brother and I were interested in playing sports, but my parents told us, “If you want to play sports, you have to be really good to be someone in the sports world. If you have an education, you can go a long way.”

I loved doing science and up until my PhD I had never worked in agriculture, but that opened up a new area that got me excited.

Connect with Dilantha Fernando on LinkedIn.

Gurcharn Singh Brar grew up in Punjab, India’s “breadbasket,” where he completed his B.Sc. in agriculture (honours in crop protection) at Punjab Agricultural University. In 2012, he moved to Canada’s breadbasket, Saskatchewan, and completed his M.Sc. and PhD in wheat genetics and breeding at the University of Saskatchewan.

Currently, he is an assistant professor of plant science in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, and lives in Surrey with his wife.

Where did you work before UBC?

I started my job at UBC in January 2020, and before that I was working at the Crop Development Centre (CDC) of the University of Saskatchewan where I did my M.Sc. and PhD. For a short time after I completed my PhD, I was working at the CDC as a research officer in wheat breeding and genetics.

What got you interested in this area of work?

I often say I am in a long-term relationship with wheat. I’ve been around wheat fields since I was a child – my dad grows wheat and rice on his farm. When I was in high school, I would visit the wheat fields and loved wheat as a plant. When I started my bachelor’s degree, I used to interact and look at wheat from a different perspective. In my third year, I saw stripe rust in our field and decided I would focus my work on wheat rusts.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at UBC.

My research program is split between wheat and barley. I work closely with public wheat and barley breeders in Western Canada. The major focus of my research on wheat and barley is breeding for disease resistance.

We focus on the five priority diseases, and in my program, we’ve established uniform disease screening nurseries, mainly for Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and stripe rust, where wheat and barley breeders send us their material, we plant it and provide them with data. We also started working on bacterial leaf streak (BLS) of wheat.

For barley, my main focus is on FHB, net blotch, scald and stripe rust. Recently, we started working on BLS of barley, which is emerging as a new disease, especially in southern Alberta and Manitoba.

For wheat, pre-breeding is where we do a lot with genetics. The Mapping novel FHB and stripe rust resistance genes from Watkins landraces project – funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance, Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture – will feed into our pre-breeding research pipeline.

Our colleagues genotyped a panel of Watkins landraces (a few thousand lines) and shortlisted a core panel of about 300 lines. Of those 300 lines, which we screened with stripe rust and FHB, we have identified close to 12 which have a very high level of resistance to FHB and deoxynivalenol (vomitoxin) accumulation. Of these 12, there are two which are highly resistant to FHB and stripe rust.

We have two graduate students working on this project, aiming to identify the genes that are making these landraces resistant to both diseases, and we are very close to finishing this research. The goal is to develop breeder-friendly markers with the aim to transfer these resistant genes into elite CWRS wheat lines that breeders in Western Canada can use.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

We can’t do the research if we don’t have the funding from producer groups. I really appreciate the funding and support from the deepest core of my heart. One thing I learned from my mentors and I keep in mind is to make sure my research goes back to help the farmers. If not in the short run, in the long run it should pay back.

I think the Prairie producer groups are doing a commendable job. For me, the biggest positive is although I am sitting on a UBC campus far from Manitoba, they understand my research has value, too. They don’t limit funding to the provincial boundaries, which I think is a very visionary approach.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

If we develop a variety, for example, that is a direct benefit to the farmer because it gives them another option. The other research we are doing, like genetics and pre-breeding, also has benefits. Suppose we identify novel genes for resistance to FHB from these Watkins Landraces. We transfer that resistance to some CWRS wheat lines and develop markers that we give to breeders. They can use that resistance in their future varieties.

When these varieties are released, if they have improved resistance over today’s varieties, there is potential to minimize and possibly eliminate fungicide reliance. Or, for example, in some years you have to spray twice, maybe we can limit it to one application. That will save money and a lot of effort. It will also improve the grade of the crop, and grade improvement means more money in pocket.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I am a workaholic. I really love my work, but I like to spend time with friends whenever I get the chance. I also like to read Punjabi literature – fiction, poetry, etc.

Who or what inspires you?

 My father is a big inspiration. He worked tirelessly in the field and I don’t think I can work as much as he did at my age, or even now. For wheat breeding, my PhD supervisor Pierre Hucl is my biggest inspiration. He is hardworking and very passionate about wheat – I think he is crazy for wheat, but in a good way!

Follow @gurcharn_brar on Twitter.

Derek Brewin is professor and head of the Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics at the University of Manitoba (U of M). He earned his B.Sc. at the University of Alberta, followed by an M.Sc. at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) and PhD at Penn State University. Brewin has worked at U of M since 2003 and lives in Winnipeg, dangerously close to the best ice cream in the city. 

Where did you work before U of M?

I started this job after I finished my PhD, and before that I worked as a research associate at USask in the Strategic Development Fund. Prior to that I worked at the Canadian Wheat Board as a corporate advisor, a policy advisor for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and a lender for Farm Credit Canada (FCC). 

What got you interested in this area of work? 

There are so many opportunities in agriculture. Once I got the B.Sc., I kept getting wonderful offers. I was fortunate that FCC needed somebody like me when I came out of my program. Working and learning about how FCC forecasted prices led me to go back for my M.Sc. I thought I would return to work with FCC, but when I finished my degree there was an opportunity at the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) in transportation policy, and once I got into policy I’ve stayed interested. 

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at U of M.

I teach an agriculture marketing course where we evaluate the ag supply chain from the producer to the consumer. We know consumers are the main drivers, but ag supply chains are complex. To be able to work out the different steps in the beef, grain and oilseeds supply chain, or livestock supply chains, requires understanding of a lot of firms and agents.

When you’re thinking about the whole supply chain, the incentive to grow at the beginning, or the farmer’s bottom line, is a big part of why there is supply at all. This is something I’m always watching as part of my classes. I ask my students to think about what the price of canola is in Manitoba, for example, and how that factors into the price of the bottle of oil in a supermarket. Thinking about how those prices are all connected and how they cover the costs of processing to transporting helps us understand the market better. 

The Research to explore socio-economic impacts of disruptions on Agri-food supply chains and markets project, funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance, is about building capacity in this area, as there is growing demand for it. 

COVID-19 had a huge impact on food markets and in the food supply chains, there was a large shift from people eating out to buying retail and feeding themselves. That was definitely a big disruptor. The barriers put up during the protests of the grain supply chain at the beginning of 2020 also slowed down some grain transportation and led to backlogs in terms of movement. These are some of the areas we focus on for this research. Learning about current and historic disruptions, like the Great Canadian Grain Logistics Crisis of 2013-14, is what I teach to my students and what drives my research. 

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

Some of the evidence on public sector investment in agriculture shows that it pays off 40 to 1. I’ve done some research on innovation systems and I feel really good in terms of the economics of it. It can be a really slow process; sometimes it’s 40 years between when something is invented and when it has an impact on yield. I think, in the long run, farmers are going to be a lot better off for the research investments made through the check-offs. Economists need to keep checking that return on research as well as contribute in their own areas, especially in training new analysts. 

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers? 

For my work, we are looking backwards to learn. Learning more about these big interruptions through a few projects with Alankrita Goswami, we are collecting evidence from disruptions like BSE, COVID-19 and the transportation breakdowns in 2013-14. The more we understand these, we can work to determine whether or not current policy could help us get through a similar interruption. For us as economists, it’s a good thing to make sure the incentives have stayed in the right place to invest and monitor these systems in order to keep our supply chains functioning.

How do you spend your time outside of work? 

I enjoy reading about economics and international economics, as well as history and historical fiction; I really enjoy books by James Michener. I like playing old-timer hockey, curling and occasionally camping. Every year I go on a pretty serious canoe trip, a tradition that began back during my master’s.

How do you celebrate agriculture?

The first thing that came to mind was working the calves at fall. Some of our own work was tough sledding with just my dad, brother and I. But sometimes we would tackle the calves as a community with friends from the bigger ranches and we had calf weaning/branding events. It was a real celebration of the year’s calf crop and everybody getting together in a very traditional way, one they were doing 200 years ago and are still doing today. For me, that is a special event and a way to celebrate agriculture. 

Who or what inspires you?

I’ve met some leaders in the agriculture sector, some students included, who really inspire me – some who have received awards of merit from the faculty here. These leaders come in to be celebrated and receive these awards, and we get to hear their stories and all about their great careers. It’s nice to hear how people have changed the Manitoba sector, and it’s really inspiring for our students.

Connect with Derek Brewin on LinkedIn.

Raju Datla is a senior scientist and program lead in resilient agriculture at the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS), a partnership between Nutrien, the Government of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan (USask). Raju grew up in India and moved to Saskatoon, SK, in 1985. He took a research officer position as staff scientist with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in 1993. He holds a master’s degree in plant embryology and genetics, and a PhD in plant genetics and evolution. 

Where did you work before GIFS?

I worked at the NRC Saskatoon as a research officer in the Plant Biotechnology Institute. I was a principal research officer at NRC before I joined GIFS as a senior scientist in December 2019.

What got you interested in this area of work? 

It was through my research activities and their key discoveries from performing basic and foundational research in model crop plants. I saw opportunities to translate some of those findings into solutions for performance and productivity challenges in crops. That’s what interested me, translating expertise and discoveries into (maybe) a professional stream. Although it is a long process, you can make impactful contributions, especially working and collaborating with other experts. 

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at GIFS.

The mission of GIFS is to work with partners to discover, develop and deliver innovative solutions for the production of globally sustainable food. With climate change being a major influencer on agriculture, one thing we are looking at in our research is water conservation and if we can make crops that are more adaptive or resilient to those changes. 

Another aspect we are looking at is increasing the efficient use of fertilizers by crops. Our research is focused on how to make plants more efficient users of nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphate in Canada. 

To address and capture some of these challenging opportunities, we focused on identification and characterization of gene targets associated with resiliency and crop productivity traits. 

Our research findings led to the development of the “Targeting reproductive and spike traits for improving grain yields in wheat” project. We have identified opportunities in this program for discovery of new genes controlling spike developmental programs (characteristics) to improve the wheat grain yield potential. 

This project is funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission and Alberta Wheat Commission. We are into the third year of this project and our current focus is on discovery and characterization of genes controlling the spike development, the major reproductive part of the wheat crop, and if we can increase its capacity. We are trying to determine if there is any flexibility and diversity available in the germplasm that we can use to increase the number of grains that can be produced in a spike. 

We have developed some candidate lines that can produce more grains, but these are at the early stages and are being controlled and studied in greenhouse conditions. 

Eventually, we will be able to identify molecular markers and the underpinning genes that control these spike traits. That is the pipeline for this research, to facilitate incorporation of the desirable spike traits conferring improved grain yields to develop advanced Canadian wheat breeding lines. 

We are connected with Canadian wheat breeders, as our discovery and characterization establishment progresses for capturing translational potential to the project’s research findings. 

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

Farmers are giving us the funding to be able to do these types of research projects. This funding is helping us discover and develop outcomes that will benefit farmers. It enables us to explore challenging research questions. The continued support from farmers helps us identify what they see on the farm, what they are looking for and/or what challenges they may be facing. There is such a benefit from their knowledge, experiences and support. 

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers? 

In this particular project, we are dealing with wheat, a very important part of Canadian agriculture, both for its quality and recognition globally. If we can improve wheat yields, that could not only positively impact farmers’ returns, but it could directly impact Canadian agriculture. Farmers would benefit from yield-boosting gene technologies and improved productivity in this crop will positively impact global food security. 

How do you spend your time outside of work? 

I like to play sports – tennis is my favourite. 

What are you excited about for the future of your sector/agriculture?

We are living in very exciting times. There are technological advances happening across multiple disciplines, and they are happening very rapidly. There are more opportunities, but challenges continue to emerge. I think we will continue to get better at advanced technological and biological understanding, positioning us well to take on more challenging tasks to improve climate adaptive sustainable agriculture productivity. 

Meet a Researcher – Belay Ayele, professor in the Department of Plant Science, University of Manitoba

Belay Ayele grew up in Ethiopia and completed his educational training around the globe. He earned his master’s degree in seed physiology at Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands and his PhD was focused on plant hormone physiology at the University of Alberta. He then moved to RIKEN Plant Science Center in Yokohama, Japan, as a postdoctoral fellow to enhance his background knowledge and training in plant hormones. After Japan, he completed a second postdoctoral training at Iowa State University, before joining the University of Manitoba (U of M) as a professor in the Department of Plant Science.

He currently lives in Winnipeg and enjoys watching sports, including soccer and tennis, in his spare time.

What got you interested in this area of work?

Everything starts from the seed. During my master’s studies, I was curious about seeds – in particular, seed physiology and how that affects the eventual productivity and quality of all crops. If we make the seeds better, can we have better yield? If so, how can we achieve this goal? That is where my curiosity started.

I am interested in plant hormones, plant-produced compounds that control every aspect of crop growth and developmental processes, one way or another.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at U of M.

My research here at the U of M funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance and other funding partners is mainly focused on two areas: pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) and lodging in wheat and barley. My research also investigates abiotic stresses in cereal crops.

There are around nine different forms of plant hormones. These compounds are produced in plants at a very small concentration, but they are critical, as they control a wide range of the crop’s growth and developmental processes, as well as its interaction with environment, which ultimately influence yield and quality. We are studying these plant hormones – mainly how to fine-tune their levels in crops by controlling their production and degradation. Fine tuning their levels is pivotal to enhance the productivity of crops and their performance under a variety of stress conditions, such as drought, excess moisture, salinity, heat, etc.

With respect to PHS, our study is focused on two of those plant hormones, as they are major regulators of seed dormancy and germination. They are called gibberellin and abscisic acid. Gibberellin enhances germination and abscisic acid promotes dormancy. The balance between these two hormones is the critical regulator for the seed to germinate/sprout under field conditions after maturity when there is rain or high humidity and cool temperatures.

As for lodging, when severe, it can cause up to 80 per cent yield loss. We are looking at questions like what makes the plant grow excessively/attain excessive plant height? How can we control that excessive growth/plant height? The main factor that controls plant height or stem elongation in plants and consequently causing lodging is gibberellin.

Using this knowledge, we are working on increasing the mechanical strength of the stem and inhibiting the excessive elongation of the internodes, especially the lower internode as lodging usually occurs around the lower internodes.

The main objective of this area of my research is to generate genes or molecular markers that can be used by breeders to facilitate the development of pre-harvest sprouting or lodging-resistant wheat varieties.

In addition to research, I teach crop physiology courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level. I provide research training to students who will become future scientists.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

This support is critical, as it advances our research and our discovery of solutions. Eventually, the results of our work will be used to mitigate some of the problems farmers are facing and will contribute to saving or maximizing their income. We are addressing problems and finding solutions to enhance the productivity of cereal crops on the farm.

Because of this funding, I can explore new knowledge, make new discoveries and develop new molecular tools or genomic tools that will help mitigate the problems that farmers are facing. At the same time, I train students who become our next generation of scientists and industry leaders in agriculture.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Our focus is to generate molecular or genomic tools that will help breeders speed up the development of new varieties that are resistant to pre-harvest sprouting, resistant to lodging or resistant to abiotic stress factors. Our work will have important contributions in providing farmers with more varietal choices.

How do you celebrate agriculture?

We celebrate in the classroom by teaching the students about plant hormones and their role in agriculture. That is part of the celebration for me: trying to share what I learn, what I do in my research and the results I generate from my research program. In addition, my students go and teach ag in the classroom at high schools and junior high schools, and we participate in farm tours and conferences to present our findings.

What are you excited about for the future of agriculture?

I think what is exciting is with the current advances in agricultural technologies like genome sequencing, we have more tools and resources available. Year to year, they are being updated and advanced, helping trim the time it takes to produce tangible results. So, I think the future of breeding and finding genomic and molecular tools will be faster than ever. The availability of advanced technologies and the resources generated by these technologies are exciting.

Pierre Hucl is a wheat breeder at the University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre (CDC). He is also a professor of plant science and the Ministry of Agriculture Strategic Research Program Chair in CWRS Wheat, Specialty Wheats, and Canaryseed Breeding and Genetics.

Hucl began his undergrad in botany but eventually switched to plant science. He completed his master’s at the University of Guelph and worked for a couple of years as a peanut and coloured dry bean breeder there before moving to Saskatchewan to complete his PhD in wheat. Hucl has two daughters, one in Saskatoon and one in Winnipeg, and lives in Saskatoon with his wife.

Where did you work before the CDC?

I worked for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool for about three-and-a-half years before I joined the CDC in 1990.

What got you interested in this area of work?

I think I’ve always had an interest in genetics without realizing it. I worked for a plant breeder at the University of Guelph for my first summer job in the discipline of crop science. I was working with dry beans and was given the responsibility of planting an international nursery. I was told it was mine and I needed to look after it from planting (by hand), hoeing in the summer, to harvest. Years later, a variety came out of that nursery that became the dominant white bean in Ontario. I saw the evolution from what came out of my original work – that’s kind of what piqued my interest.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at the CDC.

Plant breeding is a bit like miniature farming. Watching the weather radar, looking for hail, all those kinds of things, and dealing with the consequences of bad weather. My summer is spent in the field pretty well every day.

Then we come indoors in October and start dealing with field data and disease nursery data. I have to make decisions and decide what is going to move into the grain quality testing lab, for CWRS or any other type of wheat. I make decisions every day as the data comes in.

In terms of research projects, I do the statistical analysis to ensure things are working properly. As we finish our grain quality data collection for the breeding program, I decide what will move forward into the registration testing system. I make the decisions on what is going to go to the field at the CDC. In the past, I supervised graduate students. Currently, I sit on a number of graduate student advisory committees and chair a number of departmental administrative committees.

In one of our current projects, funded partially by Manitoba Crop Alliance, we are looking to develop higher-yielding CWRS varieties, while maintaining grain protein levels and baking quality. This project began in 2021 and has been funded for three years. We just completed reporting on the first test site from last year, not a whole lot of data mind you, but it was pretty clean statistically. We increased protein by 0.9 per cent and increased the dough strength, but decreased the yield by three per cent. Now we need to determine if we can pump these genes into some higher-yielding backgrounds and increase yields while keeping a decent quality profile.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

In this day and age, it’s critical. I am convinced that without check-offs and commission funding, many of the programs in the public sector would have disappeared a long time ago.

I think it’s important for breeders to have contact with the board members and get an idea of what’s important to farmers. It’s even more critical nowadays because in the old days, we used to have a lot of field days and we had a lot of direct contact with farmers. Now, a lot of that contact is made through social media and it’s very easy for people to end up in their own little academic silos.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

I think the farmers can sway what direction breeding programs head and ensure that they work on problems they are facing on their farms. Whether it’s problems of disease, grading or new technology, for example.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

Before I had my spine fused, I was playing soccer five or six times a week. That was my mind clearing activity. In October last year, I started walking soccer.

What gets you most excited about your work?

To be able to start something from scratch – have the idea, execute it and maybe have it actually work. To me that is exciting; being able to be inquisitive and try different things.

What is your favourite food or favourite meal to cook?

I have lots of favourite foods. I’m big into seafood. I like a lot of things that are chewy like squid, jellyfish, chicken gizzards, all the things that gross out my daughters. But every week I cook a different pulse. That is something I started doing after I had surgery and was stuck at home for a few months.

Elizabeth (Liz) Brauer is a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa. She earned her bachelor of science and master of science degrees at the University of Guelph (U of G), her PhD at Cornell University and completed her post-doc in Ottawa with AAFC. Brauer lives in Ottawa, ON, with her husband and two sons.

Where did you work before AAFC?

After my master’s, I did a short research position at the International Potato Centre in Lima, Peru. I was there for seven months, and it was a great experience. I also worked at the Boyce Thompson Institute – an NGO focused on plant research located on the Cornell University campus.

What got you interested in this area of work?

My interest in plants really came from my family. My grandmother was raised on a farm in Congress, SK, and my great grandfather bred roses in a greenhouse in Calgary, AB. Both sets of my grandparents had an appreciation for gardening, and I grew up with this appreciation of plants. At our house we grew vegetables in the garden from seed. When I was 16, I took over as the head gardener and I made a lot of mistakes on my quest for really good vegetables.

This laid the groundwork for my interest in plants in general, and then an intro to plant biology course at U of G, taught by John Greenwood at the time, hooked me into the world of plant science and the potential of research as a career. All the things he talked about in that course really explained what I saw in the garden by trial and error. Barry Shelp at the U of G gave me my basic training in research, and I’m very grateful to him for that.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at AAFC.

Generally, my lab is focused on addressing key agricultural problems in cereal crops. We focus on the physiological and genetic traits of plants and how we can manipulate some of those traits to improve production value. We collaborate with other groups to improve crop performance – breeders, for example, to try to feed into breeding pipelines or if there is a specific trait that can help solve a problem.

While we tend to work more on disease than some of the other traits, we are also involved with phenomics. Phenomics, or high-throughput measurement of plant traits, is a new “big data” approach to try to improve efficiency of monitoring in the field. For example, breeders only have time to visit the field once in the field season to look at a specific trait. Our goal is to implement sensors and cameras to give them information to make the best selections possible. We are currently developing the tools to do phenomics in the field environment on both wheat and barley.

The Targeting mycotoxin resistance to control Fusarium head blight (FHB) project began in 2021 and is supported by Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) and Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission. This work is a collaboration between research groups at AAFC and Olds College of Agriculture & Technology in Alberta. This project builds on previous work that we published in 2018 and the discovery of this gramillin, a fungal compound that promotes FHB severity in barley and is toxic to plants, killing cells within hours. We are trying to figure out how it works in the plant and our goal is to develop resistance to the new mycotoxin. This is a new form of resistance that we’re trying to take from the discovery with basic science research and deploy it into the hands of Canadians through genetics.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

Support from farmers is crucial for our work. It is very important to us that we are serving the community of Canadian farmers because our role, as I see it, is to address their issues using the research tools we have. When I started this position in 2019, I went to farmer forums and I heard directly from them that FHB was a huge problem and that deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination was really important to them in cereal production. Throughout the whole value chain, it is a huge cost for all our taxpayers to have to test for DON constantly. So, farmers need solutions that are practical and easy to use, and I think genetics and new variety development is a really good delivery system for that.

This relationship gives us not just the monetary support, which is important to be able to do the research and bridge the gaps that we need to, but also gives us the motivation to see what we are doing is important to the farmers who are generating the food for Canadians. We are very grateful and happy to be working together with farmers.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

We have a couple of different goals with this work. We are trying to address both the DON and FHB issues by delivering (over the long term) varieties that are going to be more resistant for farmers. In this particular project, what we’re doing is laying the groundwork for us to be able to find molecular markers in order to feed into breeding pipelines, so we can track that gramillin resistance and bring it into new, elite barley varieties. In the end, we are working to provide farmers with solutions in the form of either genetic or chemical treatment options.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I enjoy hiking and travelling, and I love long-distance swimming (open water), although I don’t get to do it enough! My longest race was five kilometres, and I did that in under two hours. It feels a lot like research actually – having a goal and you just keep going for it. Don’t give up. It hurts but keep going.

Who or what inspires you?

I get inspiration from a lot of things. My job involves interacting with a lot of different people with very different perspectives. Farmers, industry, people like brewers and maltsters, as well as academics and students from the university. I think the exciting thing is the integration of these different perspectives and seeing where problems converge and where we can really make a difference for a lot of different people.

What is a good piece of advice you’ve received?

This came from Sophien Kamoun at The Sainsbury Laboratory, one of the most influential plant pathologists of our time. He gave a talk at Cornell and had lunch with the graduate students. I remember a number of us were working on this one plant disease that’s great to work with in the lab but not particularly agriculturally relevant. We made a lot of progress in understanding plant-pathogen interactions by studying that disease, but he politely suggested that we should work on a disease that matters. And that really stuck with me because it was true. There are a lot of people who are directly and indirectly affected by plant disease and agriculture. Shifting our emphasis away from model organisms and instead applying our knowledge to agriculture can not only generate really interesting discoveries, but also impact a lot of people.

Follow @liz_brauer on Twitter!

Doug Cattani is the perennial grains breeder and agronomist at the University of Manitoba (U of M), with over 35 years of perennial grass breeding and perennial grass and legume seed production experience.

Cattani holds a bachelor of science in agriculture and a master’s degree in plant breeding, both from the U of M, and a PhD in plant production ecology from Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands. He lives in Winnipeg, MB, and is married with three children and four grandchildren.

Where did you work before the U of M?

Before the U of M, I worked at provincial and federal government levels, in private industry and at another academic institution.

What is the best part about your job?

The best part of my job is being outside in the field interacting with plants and producers.

What got you interested in this area of work?

My first summer job as a university student was with the forage breeder here at the U of M and they happened to be working on seed production in perennials. After that, I worked for a year on vegetables and a year on wheat and barley, but I’ve predominately worked on perennials and I thoroughly enjoy it. A major focus has been on seed production and breeding for seed production.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at U of M.

From a research perspective, because I work with perennials, we are worried about what is happening 365 days of the year. Freezing rain, no snow, too much snow, all the problems people are worried about when dealing with perennials. Generally, from snow melt to when snow comes to stay, we are in the field evaluating our crop, watching it to determine ae we getting disease? Are there insects? Winterkill? We are looking at all the factors that go into the long-term survival of a perennial.

We are looking into the potential of adding intermediate wheatgrass as a perennial grain into western Canadian cropping systems. Earlier work brought about the selection of adapted materials for Western Canada, and current research looks to move the breeding along to traits with agronomic importance to sustainable production systems.

Currently, I am working with Dr. Matthew Bakker, U of M, in this research and we are looking at the genetics related to Fusarium head blight resistance and to seed size, as well as agronomic production systems for integration into a “typical” crop rotation in Western Canada. Practices identified for integration into typical crop rotations are especially promising for Manitoba, where precipitation tends to be higher than Alberta or Saskatchewan.

In the winter, I also teach courses, which have ranged from general agricultural production through to genetics, plant breeding, forage production and grassland science.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

In our system it’s almost imperative we get farmers’ support. For me personally, I am working on developing a new commodity, so the willingness of farmers to support research looking to potentially change the landscape of farming in Western Canada is critical for me to be able to move forward.

It also provides contact with farmers to bounce ideas off, have them test the materials and to work out the glitches of production on research-scale plots. Even though I have run experiments where our individual plot size is close to three acres, we are still not on a farm-scale production level. Having farmers grow it and work with it on their farm provides us with a better idea of what some of the challenges will be and, potentially, some of the best practices we could utilize.

How does that funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Hopefully, there is the potential for a new crop in the future – one that will aid in the aspects that have become quite popular in last couple years (like soil health). It’s generally accepted that having perennials on the landscape allows for less soil erosion, better nutrient and water utilization, and once established, you have ground cover 365 days of the year.

I think it would fit well with the current soybean, canola, wheat system that a lot of farmers are using. It will maintain soil health throughout the whole cycle of having the annual and perennial crops in a rotation. There are a number of potential benefits that could accrue from utilizing a perennial in a rotation.

It is important to understand this research is in its infancy. When I was an undergraduate student, I was told it was a stupid idea and it would never work. Then 25-30 years later, this idea came out again and there were people willing to work on it, seeing the potential direction of where the earth is heading and where production agriculture has taken us. We should be able to make progress over the next couple of decades to where we have something that will be tangible. Think of soybeans 20 years ago. How many acres did we have? Look at how much research has gone into getting soybeans to Western Canada. There is a risk, but there are definitely rewards in this type of research.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I enjoy photography to an extent.

What gets you most excited about your work?

The potential of it and seeing the progress we’ve made. I’ve been doing this for 12 years and when I started, Manitoba Forage Seed Association industry reps said with intermediate wheatgrass they could average around 500 lbs/acre for maybe three years and then that’s it. The tests we just ran over three years (two of them very dry), we averaged over 600 lbs/acre a year. In this last year, with our best management program, we were at 750 lbs/acre in the third production year.

Just employing selection within Manitoba and some of our production methods we’ve been able to bump the yields up approximately 50 per cent. Quite encouraging that in a relatively short period of time, taken what industry told me was the norm, to now be up through relatively trying years and have results I am quite happy with. I see there is more potential.

What are you excited about for the future of your sector/agriculture?

We’re always going to need agriculture. I see agriculture is probably at the forefront in a lot of ways of taking climate change seriously. The industry understands the risks to production and realizes the need to continue to be productive at the current levels, but to do it in a manner that has less impact on our environment. Agriculture is taking a lead in a lot of this.

The road to perennializing some aspects of production agriculture is being led by the Land Institute out of Salina, Kansas. There is currently research taking place on six continents, with perennial rice being the largest success story to date. Research is needed in order to make progress and with the younger researchers becoming interested, we are seeing an influx of new ideas and newer skill sets into this research area. Researchers from four of the continents recently co-operated to evaluate some newer materials to get a better understanding of adaptation and how climate change could influence where different perennial crops could be grown.